A rare and important Kassel Hochschnitt armorial goblet, by Franz Gondelach, dated 1711

The round funnel bowl engraved in Hoch- und Tiefschnitt with the crowned family arms of Wildenstein-Exterde and Boyneburg-Wildenstein, framed by martial trophies and flanked by a pair of putti blowing fanfares, the lower half of the bowl and the foot are enriched with moulded and cut bands of trefoil acanthus leaves, the moulded and cut stem in the form of an inverted baluster with a band of flutes and volute acanthus leaves, between two collars, 22.5cm high (crizzled, some damage and repair)

For two goblets with a similar stem see that p.120, no.8 formerly in the Mühsam Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; that in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, no.9, p.121; formerly in the Mühsam Collection, now in the Art Institute, Chicago, no.13, p.124.

Considered to be one of the most important German engravers of the Baroque era, Franz Gondelach (1663-1726) skilfully mastered the techniques of Tiefschnitt (deep-relief) and Hochschnitt (high-relief) decoration. From his arrival in Kassel in 1682 he seems to have worked for Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel. On 18 January 1688 he obtained an official appointment and is documented as 'court master glassworker', 'court glass engraver' or 'princely glass engraver'. His most famous works are three ice jugs: the first (Pommersfelden, Schloss Weissenstein) was a present from the Landgrave to Lothar Franz von Schoenborn in 1715, the second (made before 1714) is in Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, and the third (also made before 1714; Moscow, Kremlin) was given by Frederick IV of Denmark to Tsar Peter I. Other important works include a covered goblet (1717; The Hague, Gemeentemuseum.) decorated with St George and cherubs executed in Hochschnitt and commissioned by Prince William of Hesse for the confraternity of St George in The Hague; a goblet with cover decorated with a faun and nymph (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and a goblet with a resting Venus (Berlin, Schloss Köpenick). Sometimes Gondelach signed his work with diamond-point engraving, and a particular mark was a cut eight-pointed star on the underside of the foot. From 1723 until his death Gondelach directed the Landgrave's glass factory at Altmünden.

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